Thursday 23 December 2010 09.54 EST
First published on Thursday 23 December 2010 09.54 EST

The BBC has been ordered to withdraw DVDs about Steptoe and Son star Harry H Corbett after complaints about its portrayal of his late second wife.

The Curse of Steptoe, starring Jason Isaacs and Phil Davis, was judged "inaccurate and unfair" by the BBC's editorial standards committee – despite it having been re-edited twice.

In a dispute spanning two years, Maureen Corbett's brother complained that the drama implied his sister's relationship with the actor was a casual one. The Corbett family has previously accused the show of being "defamatory" about the late actor.

The BBC Trust this week said the portrayal of the relationship was still unfair and inaccurate, and had not been "sufficiently edited" to take account of previous committee rulings.

In November 2008, the BBC promised not to repeat The Curse of Steptoe in its current form after complaints of "numerous specific inaccuracies" from Maureen Corbett's brother.

A re-edited version was shown again on 28 December, only for the committee to rule in May 2009 that the relationship was still inaccurately portrayed. Another version, both broadcast and released on DVD, failed sufficiently to correct these inaccuracies.

"The committee concluded that having taken into account both scenes, in respect of the portrayal of the relationship between Maureen and Harry, it found that the re-editing had not changed the nature of the relationship sufficiently for an audience to remove the impression of a casual relationship," the BBC Trust said.

"The committee also wished to reiterate its earlier concern that whilst it did not want to inhibit writers and producers from using creative licence with a drama of this kind, it was important when dealing with facts not to unfairly distort the truth."

BBC Worldwide said it would immediately withdraw the Legends of Comedy DVDs, of which The Curse of Steptoe was one episode.

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